Contradicting previous White House explanations, President Donald Trump has declared he had planned to fire FBI Director James Comey all along, regardless of whether top Justice Department officials recommended the stunning step.

The tweet seemed to suggest there are possibly recorded conversations between Trump and Comey that could be leaked to counter the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director if necessary. Indeed, during the campaign, Trump praised Comey for his announcement about Hillary's emails that darkened her chances for winning the election, and Trump said that Comey "showed guts" for having made his statement.

It's unclear what Trump meant when he tweeted about "tapes" on Friday morning. But what the Post reported - confirmed by The New York Times, Reuters, CNN, and BuzzFeed, one of whose sources said Trump's disclosure is "far worse than what has already been reported" - is that Trump "jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State" by sharing details Russian Federation could use "to help identify the usa ally or intelligence capability involved".

The briefing began with National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster discussing the president's upcoming trip to the Middle East and Europe, despite threats from President Trump earlier in the day threatening to cancel press briefings in the face of fallout from Comey's dismissal. "The tweet speaks for itself", Spicer said.

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Spicer likewise demurred when asked if there are "recording devices in the Oval Office", and later said he was "not aware" of audio recordings of the January 27th dinner between Trump and Comey. He said the discussions happened in two phone calls and at a dinner in which Comey was asking to keep his job.

In an interview with NBC News, Trump also said he'd asked Comey point-blank if he was under investigation and was assured three times he was not.

Importantly, "at no point in his statement to the Post before the story went live or in his appearance in front of reporters afterward does McMaster say, "President Trump didn't share classified information with Russia" or anything close to it, "says Aaron Blake at The Washington Post". Mr Comey said he would give "honesty".

When pressed about whether Trump recorded his conversations with Comey or others, Spicer responded: "The president has nothing further to add on that".

"Most presidents after Nixon were skittish to do much taping", said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.

One obliterates the last of any credibility of Trump's surrogates, and the other raises serious questions about whether the House should initiate impeachment proceedings. Shutting down news briefings, the association said in a statement, "would reduce accountability, transparency, and the opportunity for Americans to see that, in the USA system, no political figure is above being questioned".

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